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Ministries of Love, Hope, Justice & Presence
Our Mission
That All May Freely Serve is a validated ministry of the Presbytery of Genesee Valley, committed to sharing the Good News God’s love in the ways we may.
IN OUR MORE THAN 25 YEARS of loving and serving our community, we have met each challenge with the help of others and the cloud of witnesses that surround us all. We continue to welcome your prayers and support.
Since 1992, our ministry has led in national and local justice work and advocacy for our Queer family. Today, this includes our role as “deacons and chaplains†to those who frequently request help, whether in nursing homes, facing the challenges of aging, and assistance in times of transitions and loss. With each day, more of our friends who have sacrificed on this journey are in need our help. We invite you to help us and to keep us informed of how we may be there for you and others.
You are aways a part of this ministry and in our prayers. we welcome your hope.
Rev. Dr. jane Adams Spahr
Knowing Janie, you will not be surprised to hear that the Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr remains vibrant and active as a lifelong minister, leader and mentor in so many ways.
When Janie is not with her family and grandchildren, you will find her doing what she has always done: loving with and speaking for those whose love has been questioned or voices attempted to be silenced. We are grateful that Janie has always generously been ready to collaborate with TAMFS as a friend, founding director and now paid consultant, as TAMFS continues to support these ministries she oversees.
Along with our work as described in the previous panel, TAMFS partners with Janie in exciting and emerging ministries. The following describes some of the outreach programs that we support.
TransHeartline: Planning began in November of 2017. Begun with a dream of Jordan Decker to open a house where transgender folks wanting surgery could come to recover in a loving and supportive home, it is now successfully operating as an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization on the seminary campus in San Anselmo. Janie’s generous heart, tireless spirit and vast experience embraced Jordan and his dream and his own indefatigable energy and determination.
TAMFS and TransHeartline agreed to work together as mission partners, under the direction of Jordan and Janie. TAMFS, with the generosity of Downtown United Presbyterian Church in Rochester, creates an accounting system that made it possible to accept donations for TransHeartline months before its 501(c)3 had been approved, making it possible for its growing ministry to begin months ahead of schedule.
Please take a moment to learn more about TransHeartline at www.transheartline.org
Center for Innovation in Ministry and the Spahr Initiative (Applied Wisdom Institute) Janie continues to bring her message of justice and love and hope through the educational forums and online programs, pioneered in this area as part of the Spahr Initiative at San Francisco Theological Seminary. While changes are afoot with Redlands University having recently acquired the seminary, campus, the work of travel and education greater reach of the message continues for Janie. Her outreach is supported as part of the TAMFS outreach ministries.
The Spahr Center, the LGBTQAI+ Center in Marin Country in California is thriving once again, thanks for many and Janie for helping to revitalize this organization just north of San Francisco. With the new leadership of Dana Van Gorder, The Center is thriving. As Janie says, “I have been honored to worship beside him in this transition. Dana believes and lives into shared leadership and partnership.â€
And so do we. And these are just a sample of the ways TAMFS continues to be part of a mission and innovation that helps to meet the need of these times, while gratefully remembering all those who have brought us here, like you.
That All May Freely Serve
Paradigms for New Ministries Together
We are all volunteers, with the exception of Rev. Dr. Jane Adams Spahr, Consultant.
Our appreciation to Our Friends
The Presbytery of Genesee Valley
Rochester, NY
The Downtown United Church
Rochester, NY
Marie Gibson, Chaplain for Giving
TAMFS
And You!
We appreciate your Gifts
Please use the enclosed envelope for any gifts you wish to make. You can give using our kiosk online. If you have any questions about our programs or ways in which we may be of help to you, please feel free to call, anytime.
With Love,
Ray
Dear Friends,
When I Ieft the Roman Catholic Church, I did not do so as an indictment of the church or in judgment of anyone who remained there. My family is split in that they have continued to be faithful in the Roman Catholic Church, worshiping there, getting married, baptizing babies, and having burials in the church, as we did when my dad died several years ago. So, reading this, you can tell that I am the one who “split” the family church tradition. It only takes one, sometimes.
I want to say that I love my family and we are still close. I would do anything I could for them. But there is a deep theological divide in the institutions we have chosen to grow in our faith and for our spiritual journeys. Some folks would say that there is no reason to even have to make a decision about such things. Others, like me, find ourselves required to do so, in order to maintain a level of integrity and dignity that is at our core. For me, I needed to make that choice, leaving the church more than 30 years ago, finally accepting how harmful it was to live under the oppressive teachings of the Roman Church. The conflict was not just about the church’s stance on queer people, but it was enough for me to go.
I want to say that I have also experienced similar treatment treatment in the Protestant Church. However, it was in the Presbyterian Church (USA) that I found the possibility of change. A slow slog and still not claiming itself to be “Open and Affirming”, the PCUSA renewed my hope in what a community of faith could do to restore the damage churches so often do. The PCUSA still has a ways to go, especially to “catch up” to the United Church of Christ, which has sprinted past most mainline Protestant denominations in welcoming all. And, with the frequent blend of the historical Congregational Church in the UCC, well, I hope others will find what so many of us have found and come to love here.
And all this means something; it means a lot, actually. For me, it means that I have learned the process of identifying when I believe an institution is wrong and speaking out about it, without blaming people in the institution. For me, that means saying: “This is wrong,”
And the Roman Catholic Church is again wrong.
The Roman Catholic Church, the institution of the church, has again shown how mistaken it can be, how harmful and insensitive the institution can be in the marginalization of people, this time in its announcement about our Transgender Family. During Pride Month.
One spokesperson on behalf of the Roman Church’s education arm recently said that “…being open to the complex nature of gender and gender fluidly is an attempt to annihilate the concept of nature,” insisting that biology decides what is “constitutive of human identity†and calling for the for the reaffirmation of “the metaphysical roots of sexual difference.â€Â Full Article from NBC News
No. Wrong. It is not we who annihilate in embracing our Transgender siblings.
It may be that for someone like me who has split from my early church affiliations because of  its “teachings against me and others like me” that this new policy is especially abhorrent, understanding how lives will be impacted and the doors of the church closed again to “others.” Still, you don’t have to be a queer person to know this teaching is not right. It is wrong. And, it is wrong (and maybe a bit smarmy) for the institution that is putting this forward to say that misguided as you are, you are still welcome in a church that vilifies you; to say you are still loved by an institution that has no idea who you are and the destruction they are causing you..
It is not right. It is not faithful. It is wrong. And, for the folks for whom it doesn’t matter, well, they can still have their baptisms and weddings and burials in such a place, as if all is well.
That, I think, is wrong, too.
And, in the meantime, we will continue to be a place where all are welcome and where no matter the place you are on your spiritual journey, you will be embraced here – and even ordained and married here.
Since it needs to be said to our Transgender Family, let me say, “We apologize on behalf of an institution that doesn’t know better, even though it is sure it does. And, we reject this teaching wholeheartedly.â€
And, with these words from last Sunday’s bulletin:
“Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they know the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
‘Look!’ and laugh in astonishment
and bow their heads.â€
​From Mysteries by Mary Oliver
Pride.
Love,
Ray
Note: Well there are many who would agree with these thoughts, these are my thoughts only and not meant to represent anyone other than myself. I hope you will talk with me about this or anything this else that such a provocation might stir in you.
February 26, 2019
Dear Friends,
It’s called the “Thucydides Trap.” Thucydides was an Athenian historian, who wrote the “History of the Peloponnesian War” in the 5th Century B.C.E., recording events of the war between Sparta and Athens. The term “Thucydides Trap” was coined by Graham T. Allison, an American political scientist and Harvard professor. Basically, the term for this non-historian (me) refers to the the dangerous tensions caused by a rising power in the face of an established power.  It is what is believed to have made the war between Athens and Sparta inevitable. Athens was getting too strong and greedy; Sparta needed to attack.
In modern day foreign affairs circles this “trap” can also be sprung when increased bellicose rhetoric, international bullying or threat of the use of enormous power - reaches such a pitch that others respond, even if it is “all just talk.” The threat of great threats can be as dangerous as the real thing. The “trap”, so to speak, is that one never knows when the threat or “managed aggression” will backfire into an international conflict.
The times of the 4th Century B.C.E. through today continue to tell the story of humanity seeking a better life; a more just world. Against the backdrop of the earlier times, we see the emergence of Jesus, the event of Jesus Christ into the midst of it all, as if parachuting from sanity into chaos, with the hope of turning it around. And, the secret power that would make the difference wasn’t bellicose threats — but the language of the heart; the language of love and justice.
If we accept the premise that the increased perception of a threat can produce a violent response just to eliminate the threat – is the converse true? Does an increase in the language and practice of love produce an even greater response of compassion, forbearance, love?
Yes, but centuries of greed and power grabs can make it difficult to get a foothold. That doesn’t mean we don’t continue to climb the mountain – in fact, it means we do continue. Today, the United Methodist Church voted away from love, in my opinion. They voted against the threat of love that includes our LGBTQIA+ (Queer) family. When a mainline Protestant denomination can discriminate against others, we see why the world has such a hard time with our faith communities being taken seriously as leaders in the call to justice and love. We see the problem for what it is…fear. And pride. In this case pride that makes it impossible for an institution to acknowledge the error of its ways and begin the process of reconciliation.
All the more reason we continue in the pursuit of love and justice.
To all our friends in the UMC… our arms and prayers around you.
Remember those who look forward to hearing from you…
Ray